The application goes back and forth between the travel office and the third-party funding department until both sets of rules agree.
The travel office checks daily allowance, accommodation and means of transport under travel expenses law. The third-party funding department checks the same trip to see whether the project may pay for it, and how much. Each sees the application in turn, and every query sends it back to the start.
1tripA conference trip with a flight, three nights' accommodation and a conference fee.
2sets of rulesTravel expenses law and the project's funding guidelines apply at the same time.
9expense itemsFrom the flight to the conference fee, each item follows its own rule.
3returnsEvery open item sends the application through both offices once more.
Checking both sets of rules on the same application at once eliminates 45% of returned applications.
The 45% reduction in returned applications is the headline figure recorded for this agent. Travel management does not track it as a metric: the three returns are an estimate based on experience, applied to a conference trip with nine expense items.